I just wanna chime in with an update that I found a job again in the games industry. After a long job search, the best advice I can give to you guys is to never give up. I've been turned down many times. You gotta really look at them as learning experiences, and it's probably for the best.

Another good tip is, keep making games! If you want a job at Valve, make a good Half Life 2 mod and learn everything there is about the source engine. You gotta be obsessed with making a game that's targeted to the job you want. This was a mistake I made early on, trying to learn multiple platforms and not being very knowledgable/skilled at any of them.

Last tip is, keep in touch with your peers. This forum was a good way to cope with some of my frustrations and doubts. I didn't post here that often as it'd be like whining, so I tried to come up with constructive questions. It's also good to help fellow game developers out with resumes or whatever because it makes you feel as if you're not alone and everyone is tackling the situation together.

I think sharing a few more details of what you thought did right and wrong along the way would be really valuable to people on this board... maybe you should write a "job search postmortem" article or something :P

I'm in the same boat as you Mariol. The job I got isn't exactly what I wanted (it's not in the traditional console/pc gaming space), but it's a great opportunity none the less. I'm sure we'll learn alot from our new jobs and it'll probably put us in a better position towards getting the dream job! Thanks for the well wishes.